Zendai Contemporary Art Exhibition Hall, Shanghai, December 2010 – January 2011
Co-curated by Li Xiaofei and Alessandra Sandrolini

 

Four videos form the hub of the installation and are presented two by two. They show mysterious rituals enacted by a character. The character is acted by different people of different sex, age and race throughout the moving image sequences. The actions portrayed reveal an intimate and sensual love for the secret knowledge hidden in plants and tress. The character is engaged in rituals with seeds, fruits and peculiar flowers and pries into the core of life. The images show mundane situations. However, these every day situation have been shifted ever so slightly to reveal the vastness of the unknown that marks human existence.

From time to time the character connect the plants to transmitting devices. It is not clear how these work or whom is the receiver. There are indications that he/she aims to send the knowledge contained in plant life to a faraway destinations, or even into space.

 

Two cobblestones are presented in the exhibition. These props of revolution and construction are each sealed in a glass-case, suggesting a museological connection. This is further underlined by another glass case with a half full glass of water. All the diverging objects of the installation are connected through wires that are suspended in the ceiling, further underlining unknown connections between the different parts that make up the installation.